"(M)atinee idol Akira Kobayashi, is an almost languid tough guy, Elvis with a pinch of Mitchum, who seems to be nursing an inner wound....Our Blood Will Not Forgive (is) conceptually as well as visually exciting. Kobayashi is the eldest son of an assassinated yakuza boss who, on his deathbed, begged his offspring to forswear revenge and stay out of the family crime business. First Son appears to comply, and maintains a false front of buttoned-down respectability, but he's a worm-eaten secret sinner....The deep waters of Kobayashi's sullen soul are played off against the blunt nature of his more conventionally rebellious kid brother....Kobayashi's hypocritical yuppie gangster...gets a daringly long, drawn out death scene, staggering around a barren country landscape, bleeding on the underbrush, until his sins are paid off with interest and he is transfigured."-David Chute, Film Comment